Foster Failure

Though I will say right off the bat that I never really expected to be a success in this particular case. :-)

This is Jenna. Jenna has been a patient at the clinic for roughly the same amount of time as I've worked there. She's an 8 1/2-year-old King Charles Cavalier with a grade 3 heart murmur who is currently in stage 3 kidney failure. Her previous owner, Voldemort (as in She Who Shall Not Be Named because she's a terrible person!), had a trade services agreement with the clinic, meaning that we gave her free vet care and she gave us free advertising in the magazine for which she worked. That agreement was made, of course, prior to Jenna's deterioration of health so, in the end, Voldemort ended up with a pretty sweet deal. In the last month of her contract, Voldemort had to bring Jenna in every other day to receive subcutaneous fluids; she had to pay for the fluids but not the actual tech time, which saved Voldy about $25 per visit. Voldemort's contract with the clinic expired in mid-August and the clinic manager chose not to renew it. Literally three days after Voldemort was informed of this, she decided Jenna was on death's doorstep and needed to be euthanized. 

Unfortunately for Voldy and fortunately for Jenna, the latter had been coming in to the clinic so frequently that all of us knew she wasn't ready to go. Jenna made a point of visiting the reception staff each time she came in for her visit, and then she'd head to the back without any prompting. When we'd let her in the treatment area, she'd trot around and say hi to all the techs and then head toward the table where she received her fluids. Jenna LOVES people but she was my girlfriend and everyone knew it; anytime Jenna came for fluids, everyone knew I'd do it because Jenna was a favorite of mine. She'd give me kisses after her treatments and I'd give her liver treats. We had a relationship. :-) So when the staff heard Voldemort planned to put Jenna down, we were all up in arms. We talked to the doctor about Jenna and he agreed to talk to Voldemort about surrendering Jenna to the hospital. Turned out Voldy wasn't interested in surrendering Jenna, she absolutely wanted her put to sleep. We all talked about this attitude in the back and came to the conclusion that, as an owner, if a doctor agrees to put your animal down, your belief in her poor health is validated and you, therefore, are not a bad person. If, on the other hand, the doctor wants you to give your pet to someone else, that means your animal isn't beyond saving and you are giving up on her. It really took a lot of persuading but the doctor finally convinced Voldemort to let Jenna go and she officially became the hospital dog. 

I think the doctor and the manager (his wife) were so easily persuaded to save Jenna because they believed I was going to adopt Jenna. And, believe me, I really wanted to! And I talked to Robert about it at length. Unfortunately, Jenna's care is quite costly and with the baby coming and the adoption in the queue, caring for a special needs dog wasn't the best idea. So the hospital was stuck with Jenna. There were several inquiries from clients interested in her but once they learned of her special needs, each one declined. Understandable, of course, because so did I but it was still sad. Jenna is an AWESOME dog - she loves people, car rides, and walks and is not fazed by loud noises, cats, dogs, children, or anything else. Aside from her medical needs, Jenna is the most low-maintenance dog you'll ever meet. But since no one was rushing to adopt her, Jenna had nowhere to go. Which, of course, meant I took her home the first night. 

Another tech took Jenna home several times in the beginning but she has two small children and a very active lifestyle and it was tougher for her to keep Jenna. Robert and I, as you know, are not social butterflies so slowly I became the Foster Lady and I was tickled pink. Robert fell for Jenna soon after meeting her, as I knew he would; it wasn't long at all before he decided she needed a new bed, new bowls, and a new collar. It's been 8 weeks now and Jenna is definitely a McCauley! It's actually a pretty sweet deal - I get to keep her but since I haven't officially adopted her, the clinic pays for her prescription food, three different medications, and her fluids/dripsets/needles. The manager has OK'd this arrangement for as long as I work there so I couldn't be happier!! I honestly don't know if that will change when I'm on maternity leave but I'm really hoping not.

We took Jenna to the dog park but she mostly just wanted to hang with people.

Linguini was VERY unhappy with Jenna's presence when she first arrived but he's slowly gotten used to her, in part because he's figured out she doesn't move much so she's not going to come at him. He no longer hisses at her and they can both be in the same room together. Funk was a little jealous at first but it wasn't as bad as I was expecting and now he's completely indifferent to her. Except when Robert or I get home from work - Funk definitely wants to be the first to say hello and is a little dramatic when Jenna trots up to say hi, too. I, of course, have to give Jenna all of her treatments and I will admit it's not super fun. She won't eat pill pockets so I literally have to shove the pills down her throat and syringe-feed her some water to make her swallow. And this happens twice a day. Jenna has also decided she's tired of being poked every other day and so doesn't take her fluids as uncomplainingly as she used to. But she's just a doll and I love her to bits. My parents like her, too, (a lot!) and have been super awesome about letting Jenna hang at their house when Funk does. Things have been going as well as could be expected and I'm just so happy about that.

She did pretty much immediately decide Funk's bed was her new bed and Funk is too much a gentleman to kick her out.

Jenna's health is the elephant in the room, though, and it's already decreased some in just the short amount of time she's been with us. Her kidney failure is a little tougher to manage given her heart issues so she gets bloodwork done every so often to check-up on things. (Another expense I'm extremely grateful the clinic covers.) The doctors estimate she has less than 12 months to be with us and while that does make me terribly sad to think about, I'm just so happy she's getting to experience love and cuddles and fun that fostering her is absolutely worth the upcoming heartache. And, best of all, when it is her time to go, I'll know with all my heart that everything was done for her and she wasn't just discarded as an inconvenience.

Jenna in her old bed and with all her hair.

Jenna in her NEW bed with her sassy new 'do.

Voldemort didn't keep up with Jenna's grooming so she was covered in mats. We shaved her down at work and then Robert and I took her to PetSmart to smooth out the cut and bathe her. She kinda looks like a beagle but you can tell she loves having less hair!

Of course, she wasn't thrilled with it right away... It took a little getting used to.

This is Jenna in the new bed we bought for Funk to replace the bed Jenna overtook. He sleeps on the couch.

Jenna is a born beggar and therefore fits in seamlessly with the boys.

The other tech that watched Jenna bought her a fabulous Halloween ensemble! Unfortunately, J is just a little too plump for a perfect fit so it had to be returned. I don't think she misses it.

A Peek Into the Clinic

The Web site for my clinic is woefully out of date. And until I bite the bullet and make my blog private (which I'm loathe to do but if I don't, I won't be able to vent at all! ;o) ), all I will say on the subject is that we had new photos taken last week. I'm not sure when the site will be changed or which pictures will be used but I snagged a few so you could get a tiny peek of some of the people with whom I work.

From L to R: Cassie, me, Bethany, and Karolina. Yes, I'm the only one who opted to wear a print scrub top but I don't care! I contemplated wearing a solid color (though I only own 2) top but felt it just wouldn't hold true to my personality so Doodle Cats it was. And I like it.

Here, Dr. Kestler, Bethany and I are giving Sherman (one of the practice owner's dogs and the cutest little Pom/Cairn Terrier mix you'll ever see!) an ultrasound. Aren't we smart?!

If you look reeeeeeally closely you can see Sherman's bladder on the screen. We use ultrasounds to perform cystocenteses, which is a lot nicer than doing blind sticks.

This is the my bio photo, which will be used only if the practice manager decides to post bios for the techs. My gut says she won't so this will probably be the only place you'll see it! The dog is Jasmine, another of the practice owner's dogs. She did very well. :o) I had the option of bringing in Linguini or Funk but somehow I just didn't think that would've worked out so well...

I Remembered a Cool Thing!

So, I've been meaning to post about the shows greenlit for this fall but it requires me to link from several pages and I'm lazy/busy so I promise I will get to it this week. I get off early Monday and Thursday so I've gotta dedicated some time to the blog!!! In the meantime, here's a moldy oldy that I found languishing in the 'drafts' pile.

Sometime during my senior year in the VT program, the need arose for Boone, our resident horse, to have his sheath cleaned. Apparently, this is something that happens all the time in the horse business but since Charcy was a girl, we students had never really been confronted with it. But it was a learning opportunity so when Dr. Mac asked if anyone wanted to join her on such-and-such day and time to clean Boone's junk, I decided I'd help out. Now, I had Animal Care immediately preceding the cleaning so it's not like I made a special trip to campus or hung around excessively; I don't think I'd have done either of those things had I been forced to make the choice. But since I was already there I decided to go for it. Besides, when else would I ever get the chance to do such a thing?! Robert absolutely did not understand or agree with that philosophy since it involved sticking my hand up a horse's penile sheath but that's why he's a writer and I'm a tech. :o) The process essentially consisted of filling a bucket with warm water and soap and then getting a bunch of gauze, soaping it up and inserting it into the sheath to scrub away debris. We wore gloves, don't worry. Dr. Mac had the displeasure of reaching waaaay up and retrieving the "bean" of smegma (sorry, guys) so we students just had to scrub and rinse. There were only about 4 of us (excluding Dr. Mac) and you wouldn't really believe how dirty it gets up there! It only took about a half-hour total and I'm glad I did it. Something to tell the grandkids.

Here's an informational video on the process if you're at all interested in real visuals to go along with your mental pictures:

The Boys Being Cute

Wow! It's been longer than I thought since my last post... Sorry about that. I worked 10-7:30 last week and it totally wore me out!!! My manager doesn't give out the next week's schedule until the weekend before so it makes planning things difficult. For example, I still don't have my schedule for the upcoming week so I have no idea how many hours I'll be working or on which days. It's more than a little frustrating. But I digress. This is supposed to be a cute post, dammit! So here goes.*

First, we have Funk. Many mornings when I wake up, I see a big, black puppy laying in his bed. Notice I said laying, not sleeping. Funk's bed is on my side of the bed and when he thinks I'm awake but isn't sure I'm going to get all the way up, he just wags his tail. He doesn't commit to actually getting out of his bed until he's sure I'm really, truly going to get up (and pet him). One morning I teased him by whispering to test his commitment to the stay-down and he didn't disappoint:

He's so cute I can barely stand it! And even though Linguini is generally a butthead he, too, has a cute habit that I caught on film. Those of you that have visited Casa de Mac may have noticed that our doors all look like crap. But our bathroom door is especially sad, and for some reason the previous owners shortened it so the gap between the bottom of the door and the floor is abnormally large. (Not creepy Peeping Tom large but larger than normal.) Every night, Linguini likes to thrust his paw through the gap and try and nab my feet. I think he plays the game with Robert, too, but he really likes socks and Robert rarely wears socks so my feet are way more tempting. :o) It is TOO CUTE to see the little pink-padded paw reach out and try to grab my toes, I love it! My nighttime routine has gotten a bit longer to include ample play time but since Gweenz doesn't have much that he seems to enjoy with his people, I will play as long as he wants. (If he gets a good grip on my sock, I'll slip it down to about mid-foot and let him pull it off. He still likes to play after he conquers the sock but he definitely doesn't play as long with bare feet.)

* Clearly, I suffer from VVS. I'll try to work on that in the future.

Today, I Liked My Job

Today was a very good day at work - the type of day that makes me happy I sucked it up and made the change. So I thought I'd share.

I was supposed to work at reception all day today (bleh) but upon clocking in Stephs hurriedly told me I was working in the back instead, as Bethany had called in sick. I was stoked; I'd much rather work in the back anyway but today there was a particular surgery I wanted to see and now I was going to be able to! Plus, I much prefer being busy, busy, busy and with one person down, I was actually going to get to do tech stuff (instead of being the new person who has to do the more peripheral stuff). I got to monitor anesthesia on the first procedure and got to watch a bit of the surgery I was interested in*, a chinchilla came in (and you KNOW how much I love chinchillas!!!) and I got to help out with its exam, and I got to x-ray a guinea pig. It was awesome! :o) I had to work an extra 90 minutes past the end of my shift and I didn't really care. I may still be in the honeymoon phase of my job but even if that's the case, it's nice to have days on the job that make you feel so fulfilled.

And because I didn't get to take any pictures of the chinchilla, here are some other photos of animals from the clinic. And a picture of me holding my first chinchilla while interning at MVVC. ;o)

Today's chin was only my second so I expect to squee every time I see one for quite some time to come.

I was almost as excited for this guy, a very handsome panther chameleon. LOVE. He bit me and pooped on me while I restrained him and it was totally worth it.

This little guy is just one of the many Petco bearded dragons. He's enjoying his heat lamp. (Never, ever, ever under any circumstances buy an animal from Petco.)

These are two of our three clinic cats, Logan (male, top) and Trinity (female). They're just hangin' out in the break room. They're both super sweet and friendly and I spend lots of time pestering them.

And THIS is Lola, the third clinic kitty. She's my favorite because she's a huge purr machine and she looooves love and...

she makes biscuits on your neck!!!!!!!!! Or your arm. Or your chest. But mostly your neck. (She's declawed up front, don't worry.) She's my surrogate cat since Linguini sucks so badly. We're BFFs.

* The surgery was a partial ear amputation. It sounds gross, I know, but amputations always kind of fascinate me and I was indeed fascinated. I almost took a picture of the sutured ear but figured I would be the only person who found it cool so decided against it. You're welcome.

4 Days and Change

Well, the moment is approaching and it's scaring me *&^%less! I can't believe only 1 final and 4 days stand between me and the end of the program... It's crazy! And very surreal.

This past Monday we had our 'pinning ceremony,' where all the instructors gather to tell us how much they like us and how much they'll miss us and we, in turn, give each instructor a gift and tell them how much we appreciate them. Then we all recite the Veterinary Technician's Oath and are given our official VT pin. It's a nice little intimate party to mark the end of our 2-year journey.

Anna, Nathaniel, Lauren, Alisa, Kristine, and Amy

Our program dogs graduated, too! Koukla and Scramble (her son ) with their new moms.

Spay Day, Take Two

Two weekends ago, the Foothill VT program hosted another pocket pet spay/neuter day (remember the one that we did last year with all the hoarded rats?); this time around, it was rats, rabbits and guinea pigs. I signed up once again and it was a lot more fun this year, since I got to do a lot more stuff because I'm a senior. :o) I really feel uncomfortable giving people orders, though (unless it's Robert...), so I had a hard time assigning things to my two Firsties in the beginning. But after a bit we settled into a good groove and took our rat, Perry, safely through his neuter. As the senior, I was the anesthetist which, of course, intimidated me, and the fact that Perry woke up on the table during his procedure didn't help! But the doctor assured me I'd done everything just fine and that those things sometimes happen. One of my Firsties also tried to reassure me by telling me that she once woke up during an anesthetized procedure. That both made me feel better and horrified me at the same time. But! We all survived, Perry included, so the day was a success!

This is Bubba. He was THE CUTEST guinea pig in the bunch! I seriously almost smuggled him home in my bag. 

Helping Lois administer subcutaneous fluids to Perry prior to surgery.

After premeds, before surgery. Not my most flattering photo - I wish I'd realized I was in the shot!

Nat and one of Bubba's friends.

Monitoring Perry's recovery.

Isn't he a cutie?!

And this gal got a golf ball-sized abdominal mass removed. She felt SO much better!

Radar's Visit

Oh my goodness! I'd completely forgotten about this post. I started it back on August 31st, right after it happened so it's a wee bit old. Sorry!

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You guys already know how in-love I am with Radar, the only dog not adopted out after the end of last year. Well, this past weekend Foothill experienced a power outage due to some construction work being done on campus. That meant that while a backup generator would supply (some) air conditioning to the animals living in our lab, poor Radar would be at the mercy of the two tiny windows in the dog barn. So, of course, I worked my magic and got Robert to agree to let me bring Radar home for the weekend.

Unfortunately, the visit got off to a bit of a bumpy start; I did a poor job introducing Radar to Garfunkel and right off the bat there was a lot of barking and growling. Then there was some lunging. Now, that is all my completely my fault because I didn't do a proper, graduated introduction. That was little comfort to Robert, however, who was pretty adamant that things were not going to work out and that we needed to take Radar back to Foothill ASAP. I really didn't want to admit defeat, however, and after much pleading and cajoling I got Robert to agree to let us take Radar and Garfunkel for a long walk around the complex to get better acquainted. MUCH to my relief, my plan seemed to work - the boys started off the walk completely disinterested in one another (but at least they weren't fighting!) and by the end of the 75-minute walk they were sniffing each other and playing nicely. We brought the boys into the house and let them play the patio a bit and they continued to do well. Robert was persuaded to let Radar spend the night and Radar continued to impress. Luckily, we still had Garfunkel's old crate from when he was a puppy (and it is huuuuge so Radar fit just fine) and Radar went in and slept through the night with no complaints. In fact, he did so well that he was allowed to stay the entire weekend! :o) Radar had no accidents in the house, was happy to hang on the couch or go for walks with Funk and he didn't chew up a single thing. He hit a bit of a speed bump when we tried to walk him around Lake Elizabeth; Radar has lived his whole life in a kennel and gets verrrrrry excited at the sight of other dogs. If you don't know his temperament, he can seem a little intimidating when he starts shrieking at other dogs so walks around the neighborhood were made instead and he did A-OK on those. I was absolutely tickled pink that the boys wound up getting along so well and that Radar had a chance to get away from his run and spend some time in a real home. It goes without saying that I was in tears when I had to take him back to school at the end of the weekend.

Radar is, unfortunately, still with us at Foothill. He's being clicker-trained by one of the seniors and all of us are just amazed at how far he has come. He is SUCH a good boy - he loves people, dogs, and playing and if I had the space I would've snapped him up two seconds after he got to school. He is definitely a high-energy dog but he loves to please his people so if you know anyone who might be interested, PLEASE think of Radar. He would be a wonderful addition to anyone's home!!!





(Where was Linguini during all of this, you ask? Well, while Radar was very intrigued by Linguini, having never seen any kitties before, Gweenz was less than enthused at Radar's arrival. He spent the entire weekend (save nights when he was moved to the office) mewling in our bedroom. He was the only one in the house happy to see Radar's behind go through the front door!)

PUPPIES!!!!!

One of the dogs Foothill selected for our program this year is Julia, a sweet little girl whose background is unknown. She is a little dog, less than 20 pounds, and her age is estimated to be around 5 years. She had definitely already had at least one litter, as one of our other pups this year is one of her puppies (he's about 7 months old now). Unbeknownst to the instructors when they picked her out, however, was that Julia was already pregnant with another litter!

Dr. Peter took an ultrasound on October 26th and counted at least 5 puppies - and they were coming soon. So my friend Amy, who has experience, volunteered to take Julia home and help her whelp. The puppies were born late Halloween evening with a surprise sixth puppy coming a little more than an hour after number five, in the wee hours of November 1st.

I had never seen a newborn puppy - the youngest puppy I'd seen was about 6 weeks old and that was when we saw Funk at his adoption event. So Amy let me come over on the 2nd and check'em all out. I was in HEAVEN!!! You'll see it in the photos - my excitement could not be contained! :o) I have seen them again since, on the 8th, and those pictures are at the end of the slide show. The puppies just opened their eyes for the first time on Saturday so you know I'm gonna have to head back over and love on them some more. They are just as adorable and soft and wonderful as I'd imagined. Oh, and while the puppies will eventually make their way to stay at Foothill (until they find their forever homes), Julia has found her home with Amy and Jeff and is now named Koukla. I am SO happy for her! She's a super huge love bug and couldn't have found a better place to be pampered. YAY!!!

First Post of the New School Year

Yikes. It's been a looooong time since I've posted anything. I'm sorry. And I hate trotting out the same ol' tired school excuse every single time but I swear it's the truth every single time! This quarter especially. I have been so buried underneath schoolwork and clinic hours that I can't see daylight most of the time. Robert can back me up on this. So can Funk - his play times have been greatly diminished this quarter and he is the saddest looking thing at about 9 o'clock every night, it's pathetic. I had good intentions in the beginning, too! Here's (the beginning of) a post I wrote back on October 9th: 


Wow. The first two weeks of classes have already flown by and I haven't posted a thing about them. I've actually gotten do to a couple cool things, too, so before I let too much time slip by, I want to update you all on just what kinds of things are occupying my time.

• First off, I hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, HATE my classes this quarter. It's stressing me out on many levels. Mainly because the classes are completely dry and boring and do not fall within my range of interests so it makes it difficult to focus or retain much of the information. Secondly, it's just a massive course load. This quarter is the most units I'll take (18) during the course of the program and that, combined with my internship hour quota, leaves me with little spare time. And lastly, because many of my fellow students are psyched that, as seniors, we've reached the point in our curriculum that's most applicable to our everyday lives in the clinic. So even though they agree that the chemistry of hematology (yuck) and the physics of radiography (double yuck!) are dry, they're excited that they're learning things they can apply to their time spent at their internship sites. I don't really have that 'glass half full' kind of outlook on life so not only am I annoyed at the boring class lectures and reading assignments, I'm down on myself for not being more interested or excited about things like other people. I really don't think there's a more neurotic or tightly-wound person out there. 

• This last week brought some sadness to the program, as one of our two sheep had to be euthanized on Thursday. Theodore had been acting a little off the past couple of weeks - eating less, separating himself from the rest of the guys in the pasture - so Dr. Mac had Dr. Bellamy come and take a look. They decided he was most likely suffering from pneumonia and put him on antibiotics. Things did not improve, however, and eventually Theo just stopped eating altogether. I had a Clin Path lab on Thursday afternoon so some of Theo's blood was drawn and Ms. D and Ms. Terry performed a bunch of different analyses, showing us what they were doing along the way. Sadly, the results indicated that Theo was in end-stage renal failure and the decision was made to euthanize him right away. Dr. Mac allowed any interested students to stay and watch, which I did. I know that seems like an odd decision but one of my weaknesses is (surprise) keeping my composure during euthanasia procedures at the clinic. I don't want to fall apart in front of clients so I viewed as an opportunity to try and work on keeping it together when I want to fall to pieces. I was a complete failure, of course, but at least Theo had some friendly faces around when he left us. The poor guy was just miserable and it showed; he was just skin and bones under his woolly coat and his eyes were almost completely dilated. And though I'm sure it sounds very strange, once he was gone, we were able to look more closely at his feet and the inside of his mouth, which was really quite interesting. (Sheep have large papillae on the insides of their cheek, which are absolutely fascinating. I couldn't find a good photo or I would have included one. Also, and this may creep you out, but apparently renal failure gives an animal a very distinct odor within their mouth and we were all able to smell that, too.) Alvin seems lost without his shier friend and the pasture seems so empty now with no Bonnie and no Theodore. :o(  It was very sad to say goodbye but I'm happy he's no longer suffering and even in death he helped us learn something new, so thank you, Theo. You will be missed.

 

• On a lighter note, I have switched clinics and am now interning just 2.3 short miles from my house. Which is NICE. And the people at the clinic seem very nice, too - the head tech has been there 10 years and is very comfortable with interns from the greenest of the green to those with a little more experience. The remaining three techs have also been welcoming, making sure to include me in interesting procedures or asking me what kinds of things I'd like to learn. Even one of the DVMs made a point of pulling me aside and asking me to check out some specimens under the microscope. That never happened at my old clinic so I am cautiously excited. This clinic is just a standard day practice, though, (as opposed to an urgent care hospital, which is what my old clinic was) so things definitely go at a much slower pace. And there are less out-of-the-ordinary cases, which means I'm a little worried that will pose a problem insofar as getting certain things checked off my skills list. But I'm trying not to stress about it too much. Trying.

• Unfortunately, my first week at the clinic tested my 'keep it together' face even before Theo's death. A call came in just before closing one day from a woman whose dog was seizing in the car. Since we were the closest clinic, she wanted to bring him in. Everything was set up  and everyone was ready when she arrived but, sadly, her dog had already died - he'd suffered major cardiac arrest and there was nothing to be done. He was a four-year-old Boxer and, unfortunately, that breed is fraught with health issues, heart abnormalities and cancer chief among them. As sad as I am to see the animal and its devastated family, I have to say that the hardest part of the whole thing for me is when the animal is put in a plastic bag and placed in the freezer. I know it's what has to be done and I know that's what happens in human medicine, too, but it just seems so terribly impersonal that it's hard for me to watch. I made myself participate, though, because it's the reality and the more I immerse myself, the better tech I'll be.

• The second week of clinic brought much more interesting things.

See there? I got past the complaining and all the steam apparently ran out. :o/  And do I remember what else I wanted to say? Not so much. Now how will Future Lauren know what interesting things happened to 2011 Lauren?! Way to go, Current Lauren. You're screwing it up for everyone. 

Funk's Bro, Jasper

Remember this guy?

He's been returned to Pound Puppy Rescue because his "family can no longer keep him." And WHY NOT, Jasper's family? Ugh. Y'know, these kinds of things really frost my cookies. I mean, I understand that sometimes people find themselves in circumstances they didn't anticipate and I would, of course, rather have an animal returned to a rescue than risk being neglected or completely abandoned but pets are members of your family. People should understand before adopting that pets live many years and are a BIG responsibility - they should not be viewed as expendable items. I realize not everyone is as goo-goo for animals as I am but it really irks me when people don't realize just how affected animals are by such huge life changes. It's a big deal. I wouldn't give Garfunkel up for anything and I hope that Jasper's next home really IS his forever home.

If you know anyone who's interested:

CLICK HERE to go to Jasper's Petfinder page

Wrestling: Funk vs. Gweenz

Linguini and Garfunkel have definitely been getting along better since my last post. They're not BFF or anything but they have gotten to the point where they more than tolerate each other - sometimes, they even play together. Which is nice on those nights I'd rather eat my dinner than throw the one-legged hippo 4,000 times. :o) I caught them in the act the other day and started snapping away. Here's a little taste of Funk vs. Gweenz: The Smackdown.

There was no clear victor.




And as another example of their growing togetherness, here's a picture I took when someone thought I was taking too long getting his dinner ready. He's very lucky Funk's a good sharer.

Foothill's Adoptable Animals

I recently got a bee in my bonnet to help promote the Foothill animals and find them homes. Because we really shouldn't have any dogs or cats on campus right now - the goal has always been (and has, until this year, been accomplished) to have the animals during the school year but have them adopted out by before summer. No animal is supposed to spend more than one academic year at the school. Well, unfortunately, we fell a bit short this year - we still have one original dog and cat living in our kennels. We also have recently come into three new kitties, the result of surrenders needing some sort of placement ASAP. It absolutely breaks my heart to see these guys cooped up, day after day, with little human interaction; all they get are the few minutes allotted to them during Animal Care twice a day. So after one of my shifts a couple weeks back I took a few photos of each of our resident cats so I could post their photos on Facebook and the blog to get the word out. Here we go.

This is Billy. He's a three-year-old, 15-pound, domestic long-haired cat. He was hit by a car back in '10 and lost his front left leg as a result but he has no problem hopping around. I've seen him make some pretty big jumps; he gets along just fine. He's super friendly (the friendliest of all our cats, I think), very loving and likes to drink water from the tap. :o)

This is Cleopatra. She's also three years old, weighs 10 pounds, and is a domestic short-haired cat. She's a curious gal who has already been spayed and has lived at Foothill the longest of all our cats - she's definitely ready for her forever home.

This handsome fella is Mo Mo. He's a five-year-old, 15-pound, domestic medium-haired cat who has also been neutered. Mo Mo was surrendered along with his brother, Chopper, because his family had to move and could not bring the cats with them. He's a very sociable guy who loves pets and wrestling with Chopper so if they could be adopted together, that would be ideal.

And THIS big guy is the aforementioned Chopper: he's Mo Mo's litter mate, is neutered, and weighs in at a pleasantly plump 16.5 pounds. He is also a very social and affectionate guy and he loves scratching posts and chasing tennis balls. Lucky would be the house that adopts Mo Mo and Chopper! :o)

 

And because I am a weird animal lady, I whipped up a few posters for these guys. I did it pretty quickly and have since decided I might tweak'em a bit but if any of you would be willing to post them anywhere, lemme know and I'll e-mail you the original files. I REALLY want to find homes for these guys so any help - word-of-mouth, Fb posts, etc. - is welcome. :o)